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Save the Trees

IndaIndaMerit-Amun
Here is some information from 'YOGA, Joyful Living'
November 2007 issue:

Forests harbor much of the world's biodiversity. They soak up water and seed rainclouds; they inhale carbon dioxide; they exhale oxygen for us to breathe. They are essential to life, but sadly, despite the growing consciousness about the importance of forests, we continue to lose around 13-million hectares per year (an area the size of Greece).

Forests are lost to logging for timber and consumer products, to land clearing for agriculture, and increasingly, to palm oil and other biofuel plantations.

As concern about global warming grows, the roles of forests in combating it is becoming better understood. Here is what we know:


About one fifth of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide come from land clearing and deforestation-more than from the entire transportation sector.

Immediately when forests are logged, disturbed soils release carbon dioxide and methane. Then more gases are released over time as leaves and twigs decay.

Different types of forests store carbon in different ways.Tropical forests cover the most acerage and store more of their carbon in the mass of their living vegetation than in soils.

The northern forests surrounding the pole, known as boreal forests, comprise the largest single reservoir of carbon on the planet. Most of this carbon is buried in deep layers of permafrost,frozen peat accumulated ofer thousands of years.

Temperate forests of the mid-latitudes contain about a third as much carbon as found in tropical forests and less than one sixth of the amount stored in boreal forests and their soils.

As the climate warms and dries out, some forests are starting to release more carbon than they absorb in their annual growth cycles. At the same time, there is an increase in the number and severity of forest fires. Although the exact climate impact of forest fires is disputed, the loss of carbon storing adds significantly to global warming.


We really have no choice: We are drowning in carbon and must save the trees, because trees are the arc that holds our climate together.


Try hugging a tree sometimes. It doesn't have to be a big tree. Take a walk in the woods and press your heart against a tree and see how it makes you feel.


An ancient cedar in Olympic national Park in Washington State, USA

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yokoyokoMember
Thank you for this very important information.

The Amazon rainforest is also very important in controlling the world's climate, even far up to the north, but unfortunately we lose a lot of this forest every year.

Let us hope that the nations all over the world will start to save our forests before it is too late.



Love,
yoko
Last edited by yoko
GiseleGiseleMember
Thank you for this information.
Cutting down as many trees is very disturbing.
Humans are destroying the balance of the earth that has taken thousands of years to develope. Whatever we do now is not going to reverse all the weather problems soon enough.

Let us just hug the trees while we can.

Sincerely,
Gisele
yogionefromobieyogionefromobieMember
Plant a tree whenever you find a spot for one. I like bonsai trees. They can outlive their un-potted cousins.

Of course they don't produce as much oxygen and you have to water them and water them and water them.

My favorite trees include pines oaks elms chesnuts walnuts filberts firs cedars redwoods maples beeches myrtles anything in the prunus family and just about any tree you can name. Ginkgos are as old as the dinosaurs and they haven't gone out of style. The magnolias have even started flowering here in February.

If you're lucky, you might even spot a monkey puzzle tree. Trees are the greatest. If I could hug a giant sequoia I would, but I can't, alas.

Don't hug a Hercules Club.

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yogionefromobieyogionefromobieMember
Some of the best things are spikey. Raindrops on roses are favored, but you have to watch thos thorns. In defense of Hercules' Club. It is quite an elegant tree. I lived with one once and never had to prune it or dared to try. I'm sure it contributes to the Tao of the Gaia principle.

I'm told that before colonization that a squirrel could cross the north American continent without touching the ground. Not so today - but maybe if we keep working on it. . .
Last edited by yogionefromobie
Sue 1Sue 1Member
The importance of trees

Trees are the largest and longest living organisms on earth. To grow tall the tree has become a miracle of engineering and a complex chemical factory. It is able to take water and salts out of the earth and lift them up to the leaves, sometimes over 400 ft above. By means of photosynthesis the leaves combine the water and salts with carbon dioxide from the air to produce the nutrients which feed the tree. In this process, as well as wood, trees create many chemicals, seeds and fruit of great utility to man. Trees also remove carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, from the air.

Trees are of continued importance to the environment. Tropical rain forests have of particular significance; although they now occupy less than 6 per cent of the land surface of the earth they probable sustain more than half of the biological species on the planet.

Notwithstanding the debt we owe to trees, their emotive power, and their importance to other forms of life, the forested area of the earth is steadily being depleted. This is leading to the degradation of the environment and the extinction of many species. There is now a real danger that in the not very distant future man will destroy a large proportion of the present population of species on earth, create an uninhabitable environment, and then die out himself. If this happens it will not be the first time that a large proportion of the species on the earth have been extinguished.

http://www.turningtools.co.uk/trees/trees2.html

Last edited by Sue 1
Vicky2Vicky2Member
From Encyclopedia Britannica


Forests are of immense importance in soil stabilization and erosion control, especially in mountainous and hilly regions; they also protect and conserve water supplies and prevent floods. Small groups of trees and even single trees have a similar role locally in preventing washouts and in holding stream banks.

Last edited by Vicky2
yokoyokoMember
http://www.treehelp.com/features/features-benefits.asp



Trees and the Environment

"The very air we breathe is improved by the presence of trees."

A book by Dr. Seuss illustrates the impact trees have on our environment. In his tale The Lorax, The disappearance of trees bears dire environmental consequences. At the onset of the story the landscape is beautiful and lush with shady groves, clean water, and ample home for wildlife. As the tale progresses and trees are cut down, the environment starts to sour. Animals flee for lack of food and shelter, the air becomes dark and dirty, and the water supply grows stale.

So too, would our environment suffer if we uprooted our own trees. Trees provide shade in summer and shelter in winter. In fact, trees planted around our homes help reduce heating and cooling costs. During summer, trees can block the sun and have a refrigerating effect on us and our homes, and during the winter months, trees can keep us warmer by shielding us from wind and snow.

The very air we breathe is improved by the presence of trees. In order to feed themselves, trees absorb harmful chemicals such as carbon monoxide and in turn give off oxygen. As well, they filter and trap pollutants such as smoke, dust, and ash making our air cleaner.

Where water is concerned, trees not only absorb water - preventing flooding, but also help disperse rainfall over a more even area. As well, by retaining water, trees help reduce the amount of topsoil the runs off into our sewers and streams. Leaves on the ground, keep moisture close to the ground aiding growth and traps chemicals keeping them out of lakes and rivers.

On a larger scale, trees maintain our global environment in ways that we are just beginning to understand. By acting as enormous carbon sinks, trees absorb massive amounts of carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. If trees did not perform this vital function, there would be little to mitigate the effects of global warming caused by the Greenhouse Effect.

Of course trees benefit us not only our physical environment, but also attract birds and other wildlife, making our urban centers a more pleasant place to live. Picture the eerie silence that would befall a city were the song of birds entirely absent.
Last edited by yoko
TeoTeoAvatar State
What a wonderful post! Especially.. all the..

Trees-ease! he he... Tweety

quote:
Originally posted by dear yoko:
...

Of course trees benefit us not only our physical environment, but also attract birds and other wildlife, making our urban centers a more pleasant place to live. Picture the eerie silence that would befall a city were the song of birds entirely absent.


I would be...

OUT OF MY TREE!

 Animated1 RaisedBrows



Lovin' light beams, Teo Do (re, mi, far...) tiger Cat2 Cat Abducted Abducted

Have the heart of a gypsy, and the dedication of a soldier -Beethoven in Beethoven Lives Upstairs

IndaIndaMerit-Amun
Thank you everyone for your replies and images.



The seeming timelessness of trees has created a sense of wonder in generations of people. Year after year, they continue to grow and provide us with both necessities and awe-inspiring beauty. Much of the life on earth owes its existence to trees.
Last edited by Inda
Sue 1Sue 1Member
Why save trees?

Trees clean the air. Tree foliage works as a natural air filter of particulate matter such as dust, micro sized metals and pollutants such as ozone, nitrogen oxides, ammonia and sulfur dioxides. Trees take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. Combined with the cooling effect of trees, these processes can have a significant impact on reducing smog and overall air pollution.

Trees improve water quality. A healthy urban forest can have a strong influence on our region’s water quality. Tree canopies and root systems slow and reduce storm water runoff, flooding and erosion. Trees also help filter water runoff reducing potential sources of water pollution into our rivers and storm drains.

Trees save energy. Trees cool the air naturally in two ways: through water evaporating from the leaves and direct shade. Homes shaded by trees need less energy for cooling which means lower monthly utility bills in summer and a reduced need for utilities to increase power generation to meet peak load demand.

Trees raise real estate value. Shaded neighborhoods and well-landscaped yards have a positive economic influence on real estate values, timeliness of house sales and neighborhood desirability. Studies report that landscaping speeds the sale of a home by four to six weeks.

http://www.rubbersidewalks.com/WhySaveTrees.asp

Last edited by Sue 1
IndaIndaMerit-Amun
Here is a little bit of positive news:

From Reader's Digest, June 2009

The Tree Healer in Russia.

One summer morning in a forest near Moscow, two men with a suitcase approach a tree. They open the case and take out a computerized tomography device for diagnosing diseases in trees. The men are employees of Healthy Forest, one of the first companies of its kind in Russia, which was founded by Sergei Palchicov, when he was 22 years old.
Palchikov spent a lot of his childhood in the outdoors, reading books about animals and plants. By the time he reached university age, he knew he wanted a profession that would enable him to look after trees, and he entered the Moscow State Unuversity of Forestry.

After receiving his diploma, Palchikov followed his supervisor's suggestion and cofounded a company that conducted inventories of wooded areas, with a new service: forest care. In 1996 he founded Healthy Forest to work on large projects, and his company included a noncommercial branch to promote the health of trees.

Since that time, Palchikov and his employees have treated over 300,000 trees. He regards every "patient" as unique.

Palchikov also founded a journal and managed to have a new specialization introduced at his alma mater: the care and treatment of trees.
Last edited by Inda
Sue 1Sue 1Member
We are losing species at 10,000 times the natural rate-a loss of life so great that we've entered the sixth greatest mass extinction in the Earth's history.

When the environment changes faster than life can adapt, extinction is inevitable.

The present danger comes from the anihilation of the tropical forests, which house a rich variety of animals and plants than any other place on the planet.

As of 2005, some 14.8 million of acres of primary, untouched forest are felled every year-taking with them species we'll never get the chance to count.



This information comes from TIME magazine,
September 2009
Last edited by Sue 1
yokoyokoMember

Trees promote life.  Trees produce oxygen and remove carbon dioxide; they also provide homes for animals, recharge groundwater, replace soil nitrates, prevent erosion and more. The addition of an indigenous tree to any environment will have countless environmental benefits.We need to stop cutting down trees.

 

Last edited by yoko
MargheritaMargheritaMember

What a wonderful post, I wonder why I had not shared in this before, years ago? Thank you all for the expressions of your love and appreciation of trees. I feel great pain whenever I read about the "killing" of forests, but also when a single tree is sacrificed without reason.

 

I'd like to share here my poem about the Plane trees:

 

 

 

The bare plane trees

 

Plane trees

There by the river you live and
in the morning sun you stretched
your bare white arms into the Sky,
as a prayer of glory to our Creator,
full of gratitude for being alive.
I let your Beauty sink within,
longing to come closer to you.

Your breath may suffer from
carelessness and pollution,
but you live on a secret Source.
You live on Universe's Love!
And in the evening I came
entering the largeness of your Soul.
I felt your arms enfolding me.

You trickled harmonious tunes
of Love and Peace into my ears.
I touched your trunk,
painted in pure white,
and your velvet skin.
My eyes I raised to admire the
gorgeous emptiness of your Whole.

Three boughs, as a tribute
to the Holy Trinity, sustaining you.
I dared to reach out for
a hanging branch
and you showed me
your promise of Spring!

I caressed one tiny silky bud
and in that very moment
your heart-beat resonated
as a soft thunder deep within.
A joyous trembling due to
recognition pervaded me.
And clearly I felt
that you and I were ONE.

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